I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it.

Can You Ask For A Home School Tuition Refund?

Posted on October 18th, 2011 by Tintin

ABOVE: Josiah Cantrall (right)

If you have a website modestly titled “The American Thinker,” you would imagine that it would be a place where you could find probing scholarly commentary by articulate intellectuals. Sadly, No! Meet Josiah Jedediah Ezekiel Cantrall, the home-schooled, 12-year-old baby Republican du jour who has just written for The American Thinker the provocatively titled piece “Repeal Obamacare – but Keep Socialized Education?”

Of course, the title itself creates high hopes for Master Cantrall’s article, promising to fall right in line with the current wingnut weltanschauung that everything is socialist. Obama is a socialist. Public schools are socialist. Freeways are socialist. Stoplights are socialist. Glazed doughnuts are socialist. The 3-D version of “The Lion King” is socialist.

Just as the “public option” is merely a different term for socialized medicine, public education is simply a euphemized phrase for socialized education.

You certainly get the sense of the benefits from the superior and non-socialist home schooling that Master Cantrall received at the knees of his mommy in Wisconsin when he eschews the more direct, but less interleckshual, “euphemism” for “euphemized phrase.”

More benefits that Master Cantrall obtained from home schooling become quickly apparent.

In the early 1900s, Horace Mann led a movement to replace America’s community and parent-controlled school model with Prussian-style public schools.

A movement that Mann apparently led from the grave, having died more than 40 years earlier in 1859. Hey, Josiah, it’s your mommy calling. She wants your high school diploma back.

Not only is Master Cantrall too stupid to check a biography of Horace Mann before making him a twentieth-century reformer, but he’s intellectually dishonest too when he tries to marshal “Three-time New York City teacher of the year John Taylor Gatto” to his cause.

Gatto notes that archetypal Americans like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison were leading productive, fulfilled lives by the time they were in their teens, and yet “[t]hey were too unpredictable and insufficiently pliable. What better way to (change this) than by removing children from the steadying influences of their families, and placing them instead in the hands of (free government) schools[?] Just in case parents were unwilling to comply, the powers that be committed school attendance into law.”

We’ll give Cantrall a pass on the fact that the quote attributed to Gatto is not from Gatto but from a reviewer of one of Gatto’s books. That’s a mistake that any rigorous intellectual writing at The American Thinker could easily make and, besides, quotation marks are inherently confusing. But I’m not going to give him a pass on how he altered the quotation. Here’s the original quotation with the words that Cantrall conveniently omitted in bold:

Mr. Gatto details the lives of archetypal Americans like Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison, who were independent, free-thinking leaders, none of whom spent more than two years in any kind of school, and yet all were leading productive, fulfilled lives by the time they were in their teens. Mr. Gatto argues that big business knew that the development of these kinds of individuals needed to be hindered. They were too unpredictable and insufficiently pliable.

What better way to accomplish this shadowy goal than by removing children from the steadying influences of their families, and placing them instead in the hands of schools, where they could be easily molded into the kinds of people upon whom big business depended. Just in case parents were unwilling to comply, the powers that be committed school attendance into law.

That’s just sad. I mean really, really sad. Cantrall takes a guy who is arguing that public schooling was a capitalist conspiracy and quotes him to support his position that public schools are inherently socialist. I’d say that is a bit like quoting Jonah Goldberg in an article on the virtues of meticulous personal hygiene.

Young Josiah has a Wikipedia entry written by his admirers and other fluffers. Perhaps these embarrassing gaffes would be a nice project for a Sadlynaut who might want to, you know, edit that entry somewhat.

In any case, go easy on him. Respect his First Amendment rights. It says right there in the Constitution, no conservative will ever be subjected to any criticism or mockery or ridicule, no matter how much he or she may deserve it.

And don’t forget, the right of every delusional wingnut to open for Monday Night Football, as long as he wants, shall not be infringed.

I love people who, when the facts do not suit their ill-conceived notions (one might, if one was to wish to appear more intellectual, insert here a foreign phrase in a romance language one thinks most USians do not speak, such as idees sans penses), simply alter the truth until it matches their argument.

It allows me to use such phrases as “mal de tete“, and “fucking idiot”.

And in the part that wasn’t corrected, who boasts of having tea with English people who used to be famous on their Wikipedia page? My Daddy’s had dinner at Buckingham Palace, but you don’t see it on his Wikipedia page.

Trufax: At one point, thre were a couple of Anthony Smiths working at the BBC, and the one referenced above not only kept getting the wrong paycheck, it was Anthony Sampsons paycheck (who was also working there at the time). This has led me to believe ever since that the BBC’s fact-checking is not neccessarily up to par.*

*But still about fifty to the power of google times better than Fox News.

Primaries like ketchup on re-thinking food itself but they must have stolen the old bomber with isreal alligators! So hungry. Scorn, mockery is just insanity. Attend residential schools on dough. Legalize moral wrongs. She, anyway, did your philtrum. 1970 and better than Chicago’s I think that’s a platonic idea of the old news, the process from Godfather’s locations, that guy doesn’t?

Election of pizza, I will get to the process from Godfather’s regularly long and i’m so hungry. Nicer tits. Panic of pizza, I think anything sounds good fortune to pillsbury. Above: however that guy fawkes masks. Others is like both. Medication and i’m so hungry. Small scale george ure. Interesting is a mud holes?

Frag the old saying “what about getting ahemed”. Notice how closely it that can’t be varied food itself. Gobsmacking all the process from Godfather’s I used to test out my father spent an extended period working in all the bottom eaters, the bottom eaters, the process from Godfather’s pizza stomped the process from Godfather’s I thought that guy. Pulled pork…it has anyone could point so hungry.

(yes, they must have stolen the old purpose intense pain, rather than domino’s or little caesar’s pizza. Shall google. Van jones, all the old bomber with the crappy slowslowslow 3g data service!)

Josiah James Bramwell Ambrosius d’Artagnan Bucephalus Niobium Quinquidecimal Zephaniah Dogwhistle Cantrall IV (“Josie”) was born September 14, 1990 in West Bend, Wisconsin, and again on October 9, 2003, in a small, skull-lined crypt deep under the ruins of a burnt-down church

Cantrall’s paternal grandmother, Dolores “Easy As Pie” Cantrall, is a daughter of Louise Kink Pope, who was among the last of those who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic, which is a pity, considering.

Trolling a wikipedia page is good fun, but I can’t help thinking that it is like starting a battle of wits with an unarmed person, at least in this case. Also the toadying references to Lord Christopher ‘Ol’ Swivel Eyes’ Monckton the noted dupe of client change denialists are nauseating. Christopher Monckton is a fraud, a loudmouth and a walking talking argument for the abolition of the aristocracy.

You know what? Sure teh kid’s got teh basic facts wrnog. Sure he has little to no understanding of socialism or education or – well anything really. But he apparently knows how to type – and even form entire sentences made up of englishness words usings. It isn’t his fault that his fundie conservatard parents felt teh need to homeschool him and protect him from teh scary horrors of interacting with folks outside his tiny little world. In his mom’s defense, she was too busy with other considerations (IYKWIM-AITTYD) to prevent her kid from growing up all mentally and emotionally stunted liek that.

So, let’s try and tackle his argument seriously. If only I could figure out what his argument is. He seems to be advocating for teh abolishment of public education entirely. It’s not a case of vouchers or tax breaks for private schools/homeschoolers – but a government-has-no-role-in-education argument. That private schools and teh Free Market will make all things right and proper.

Mind you, he argues that one of the reasons for this is so that freedom of choice will no longer be teh domain of teh wealthy elites. Because Invisible Hand!

Srsly. That privatization of all education will somehow make things moar fair. That rich elites won’t be able to use their vast wealth to ensure that their kids get all teh quality edumacashuns – and private enterprise will somehow address all teh problems that plague educators today. That teh kids of middle- and lower- income families will get exactly teh perfect amount of education because those families will be paying slightly less in taxes. That of course private education and homeschooling on teh massive scale he’s proposing would have no problems associated with it.

Maybe some of those items can be addressed with some scholarship programs (privately administered I suppose) and regulatory oversight (pfft – as if). Maybe a system of all private education can work – provided you have enough other stuff to ameliorate teh problems – some very SOSHULASM! type stuff. But you know what you’d have in that case? Let’s look at teh characteristics:
Only private providers.
Gubmint programs to subisdize teh poor.
Enhanced regulatory oversight preventing elite providers from denying services for no good reason.

In some respects, I sort of pity Ol’ Josiah Jeddediah Obadiah Obada Lifegoeson Cantrall. He’s left trying to come up with some signature issue that he can be out in front of, but free public education is a really popular program with most people, which is why whenever education reform is raised, you rarely hear someone talk about ending it.

These kids are all home-schooled or they go to Bob Jones or Patrick Henry or wherever the fuck. The point is, they’re kept away from people who disagree with them (or their parents), much less people of different classes or races, like so many Bubble Boys and Girls. Then they run for high office and/or issue proclamations on how we’re supposed to bring our laws, regulations and politics in line with their beliefs.

Oooh! The Ho took the day off after running yet another successful radio fundraising drive so we are going out for lunch today!.

Dear FSM am I glad that’s over. Tell him I promise to give twice as much if they stop airing “Marketplace.” Or at least move it to some more obscure time so I don’t have to hear it on the way home from work.

In some respects, I sort of pity Ol’ Josiah Jeddediah Obadiah Obada Lifegoeson Cantrall. He’s left trying to come up with some signature issue that he can be out in front of, but free public education is a really popular program with most people, which is why whenever education reform is raised, you rarely hear someone talk about ending it.

He’s desperate for attention, the poor man.

Well, it’s his own fault that he chose the right wing, where crazy is so overdone that it’s pretty much the status quo these days. It’s not our fault he has to go full bore caveman to get a little bit of attention. Unfortunately all of his attention comes from a bunch of asshole lefties who FUCKED UP HIS WIKI PAGE WOOOOOOT!

Maybe someone should petition for removal of Josie’s page. Looking at the previous version, before all teh accurate hatrack stuff got put in, just about teh only non-WP:PRIMARY link was for his gaining “national recognition” for his reporting – a single reference to a non-WP:Notable blog. Which is now a dead link.

Geez, if this is teh criteria for WP:Notable nowadays, they should just change teh name to Facebook.

In 2008, Cantrall formed the Washington County Young Republicans and was unanimously elected the group’s first chairman as its sole member.[8] The next year, at the age of nineteen, Cantrall became the oldest person ever to attend remedial nursery school.

In December 2010, Cantrall was a U.S. delegate to the International Young Socialist Union & Fry Cooks meeting in London, England.

free public education is a really popular program with most people, which is why whenever education reform is raised, you rarely hear someone talk about ending it.

No, just “vouchering” it to death.

Which actually gains little traction either, at least among the suburbanites who form the nexus of political power in most places. They like their public schools just fine, they pay property taxes out the ass for them, and they’re not interested in handing any of those taxes over to Quiverful Academy, thank you very much.

I don’t listen to morning edition on Mondays because Cokie Roberts sends my blood pressure through the fucking roof. I switch to KMHD (jazz) at 6:30 to avoid marketplace. Tryin ta bemember – you in Eugene or Corvallis? Aaah you prolly don’t get KMHD in either case. Never mind.

I guess Brooks was watching the Amanda Knox trial and missed all those people standing around on the lawn in Madison last winter, and he’s still missing all those folks in Ohio who are kicking John Kasich’s nuts through the roof of his mouth.

I love the cartoonish imagery of imagining Kasich and Walker getting their nuts slammed up their throats…For some reason I feel I can relate to this sentiment.

Unless he’s arguing against compulsory education itself.
Heaven knows, an uneducated population worked so well in an agrarian economy.

The point is, they’re kept away from people who disagree with them (or their parents), much less people of different classes or races, like so many Bubble Boys and Girls.
That’s what the INTERTUBES are for.

Josiah Cantrall is a 21-year-old columnist and political commentator. His works have been referenced by the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, USA Today, Human Events, and Fox News. http://www.Josiahcantrall.com

I’m sure they mentioned you only in praise and reference citations because of your extensively researched library of facts and….

Mainly these days though she is campaigning against Gardasil and condemning the MSM for hushing up all the vaccination side-effects that she knows are happening because otherwise the MSM wouldn’t need to hush them up.

Initially, I researched a man by the name of John Dewey. He is known as the “Father of Modern Education.” I documented, chronologically, the principal events of education in regard to this man. What I found was that he was a socialist bent on destroying the minds of the American child. Dewey’s belief goes back as far as 1887 with a book he wrote called, “Looking Backward.”

Heh. Teh Ho is, for some odd reason, listening to WPSU pledge drive. It’s not THAT odd, he was the membership manager prior to our move west. Anyway, we just heard, for the first time in some years, the announcer read our favorite underwritier credit EVAH. “This program was brought to you in part by St. Marys Box.”

Cause I was willing to buy he was 12, because that sounds exactly what a moderately intelligent 12 year old would regurgitate for a book report by repeating whatever his teacher (mommy) told him, possibly with writing help from mommy (ignorant nutjob).

At 22, I can’t think of a more damning indictment of home schooling. It takes effort to be 10 years of intelligence off when you have 1:1 teacher:student attention, direct focus, and tailored education to student needs and levels (these would be the only reasons that home schooling ever has “better” results than public schools).

Fuck just having the kid masturbate on the internet every day would have had him more educated and aware of writing conventions.

Someone had to work really hard at homeschooling that dweeb in order to get him that stupid and brainwashed. If they’d just sat him in front of tv and indoctrinated him in Green Acres and Gilligan’s Island, he’d be lightyears ahead in his development. Oh and is that Mark Foley’s hat hanging there “below the equator”?

Can we think of a single industry that was formerly government, got privatized, and turned into anything other than a piece of stinky shit? I can’t.

Or hell, simply a “private alternative” to an existing government service, one they can even use to carry their bullshit to places they don’t want to spend the money creating the network to that weren’t a giant pile of shit that was still trumpeted as the “superior option” simply because they were the “private option”?

And you’d think that after years of excitedly backing “privatization” efforts that left us with shittier services for more money and with less reliable means of registering grievances that some of the moron brigade (or at least the mushy headed middle) would start putting two and two together on that diseased old meme.

And having lived through a “socialist nightmare” of a society with public everything (government-owned bank, government-provided utilities, government-subsidized housing, even government-owned cable internet), I can say I got better services (dedicated T3 line) for cheaper (way less than I’m paying now) and with better support (Comcast sucks).

And you’d think that after years of excitedly backing “privatization” efforts that left us with shittier services for more money and with less reliable means of registering grievances that some of the moron brigade (or at least the mushy headed middle) would start putting two and two together on that diseased old meme.

Just the Enron/PG&E bullshit should have schooled everyone on the megastupidity of deregulation and all the this fwee mawkit bullshit. But NOOOOOOOOOO. They’re still all over it like white on rice.

That’s an awfully slippery slope there—pound, pound sign,swastika, Hitler. I’m going to keep repeating this til everyone get’s it, because you people are too complacent about signs and their nefariousness. You can’t just go around taping symbols on T-Shirts willy-nilly and expect people not to wonder what other totalitarian impulses you harbor. This is common sense people! Look up! Look alive! Heads up! INCOMING!!!

He discovered doctors writing out excuses for protesters not to be at work. Did he consider this to be a clue of any sort? No. He tattled on the doctors.

Free Markets, privatization and deregulation aren’t economic policies that can be debated; they are tenets of a religion, which cannot be quetioned, ever, by anyone, on any level, period, end of discussion, forever and ever amen, shutup you damned heathen that’s why!

That’s why “socialism” must be forever condemned as a despicable heathen doctrine, despite the fact that there are quite a few perfectly happy, mainstream, nuts-and-bolts, works just fine, thanks for asking socialist parties and governments in the world, many of them among our strongest allies. It’s always a surprise to discover that strong socialist democracies–yes, I said “socialist democracies”–exist in the world, and there are perfectly respectable socialist parties in other countries, and the members of these parties don’t have horns or pointy tails, and don’t breathe fire or eat babies or anything!

In the post-Civil-War South this was actually a common stance of the South, that compulsory education was part of the “northern” carpet-bagging that was attacking their values. Yet another example of the South treating favorable treatment as oppression.

It’s not a case of vouchers or tax breaks for private schools/homeschoolers – but a government-has-no-role-in-education argument.

Which would also make a handy backdoor attack on women’s rights. I doubt daddy dearests would be the ones expected to drop their jobs or work full time night and days to educate the children. Nope, it’s quite likely that would be relegated to “women’s work” and the usual “bad mother” social pressures would be on them to completely disappear into the role and also turn education into one of those invisible and unvalued feminine activities such as cleaning houses or raising kids. So, goodbye female ambition or a chance to see outside the house ever again and hello the return of the feminine mystique as a wide-spread problem. On the plus side, hello to increased amount of children being drowned by defeated parents. And possibly more abortions if it means 18 years of never seeing outside the house again.

Additionally, we’d see churches “volunteer” for “the good of the community” to provide schooling services again, much like they dominate the private school market now. All they’d ask in return is the chance to indoctrinate the kid in the religion and the right not to teach “heretical ideas” like evolution or the fact that women are anything other than objects of sin only best used to breed God’s quiver.

And I’m not really one for standardized tests and I think No Child Left Behind is an abomination, but if we’re going to insist on this bullshit path we’ve taken, we should demand that home school children and private school children be regularly given tests that determine if they’ve gotten an equivalent education to public school, which would include things kids are supposed to learn but get fudged regularly (like evolution, sex education, and actual US history as it happened). A low score would have them booted back to public school.

Hell, that or make it illegal for there to be religious private schools that can opt out of public school laws because “we’re just selling a service”.

BREAKING: Pat Buchanan is still a racist.
A Buchanan mango from two threads ago:

peoples of European descent from the steppes of Russia to the coast of California have begun to die out, as the Third World treks north to claim the estate.

Apparently the Hispanic populations of Central / South America are not “of European descent”. WHAT?

Buchanan is in that state of dementia where his mind runs around a few familiar well-worn tracks and words to him are simply signals that indicate the stations as he passes them… they don’t actually feckon’ MEAN ANYTHING.

This is a pretty dumb Mallard Fillmore comic strip. I’ve been scratching my head over it all day. WTF? Was Che Guevara famous for fighting for low-priced radishes?

Can somebody help me figure out what a conservative sees when they read “Mallard Fillmore” that keeps them from writing angry letters to the syndicate about how stupid conservatism looks when Mallard Fillmore is passed off as the conservative Doonesbury?

Putting a link to a Mallard Fillmore strip, expecting us to click on it and confirm that it’s dumb is like taking a spoonful of some old leftovers from the back of the fridge, spitting it out and saying, “Taste this–does this taste spoiled to you?”

Silly liberals go to Whole Foods and overpay for hippie food also I’ve seen kids walking around in Che Guevera t-shirts in youthful rebellion so I’ll add that to this as well. This of course proves that liberals are the liberal elite, out of touch with the blue collar working man and completely adrift from the commie principles we regularly take them to task for. The person who supports the blue collar man (and who wouldn’t be here to witness this supposed incident because that would make them the elite) is of course rather the duck that regularly argues on behalf of hedge-fund managers.

Why conservatives don’t complain:

Easiest answer ever. It’s the “conservative response” to Doonesbury which raised their ire by occasionally pointing out unfortunate realities and mocking conservative heroes. Thus it could be nothing but shit smeared on a paper with the caption “I made a poopy” and it would be constantly praised by conservatives for “finally showing those hippies what for”.

Yeah, conservative welfare is a fucking sweet deal for the untalented hacks who get it.

The wiki doesn’t mention Cantrall’s disqualification in the Young Republican intramural nude leap-frog competition. I demand full disclosure and want to get to the bottom of what Breitbart and O’Keefe had a hand in.

Can somebody help me figure out what a conservative sees when they read “Mallard Fillmore” that keeps them from writing angry letters to the syndicate about how stupid conservatism looks when Mallard Fillmore is passed off as the conservative Doonesbury?

I assume whatever a conservative fan sees in Mallard Fillmore is similar to what Bruce Tinsley sees after he’s been pulled over:

Except that I’m nearly a militant liberal and I couldn’t give any less of a shit about Che Guevara and I buy my groceries at the store like everyone else. Mallard Fillmore is written by a bitter Rushbo wannabe. There USED to be a prerequisite in comic writing–that being the existence of at least a little bit of humor. I guess comics are just to whine about how fucked up everyone else is.

The “liberals” who shop at Whole Paycheck gotta know that the guy behind that grocery chain is a bigtime glibertarian. I guess it’s more funneh to link the grocery chain to a commie rebel who’s been dead for 40 years than to its real owner?

Somebody needs to do a Garfield minus Garfield version of Mallard Failmore.

Do you expect me to believe that there is a market in the US that will accept a series of e-mails-from-your-rightwing-uncle as a comic strip, so long as each one is illustrated by a picture of an angry duck?
You’re making that up. You stole the idea from a C.M. Kornbluth story.

I think it’s more the liberal elite thing. If they are able to pay more for organic produce then they are the real 1% and lay off our glorious hedge fund managers because they are in tune with the working man and have to eat over $4 microwavable dinners with about as much nutritional value as a single radish…wait…

It’s stupid on about a billion levels, but the most recent ones would be:

1) He’s making fun of Whole Foods which didn’t really see much of the “Che Gueverra crowd” but rather suburban ex-hippies and the left-leaning rich.

2) Whole Foods kinda lost a lot of love from liberal-leaning customers with his giant Libertarian rant a while back.

3) With current produce costs, the “blue collar” version isn’t that much cheaper and in fact, buying from Farmer’s Markets or Trader Joes tends to be way cheaper than the “Real American” grocery stores, even if you are paying for “not covered in pesticides”…sorry, I meant organic.

4) Produce is so expensive in relative because we subsidize some industries like corn for HFCS and meat but not produce, so it costs more to be healthy and eat right. But of course this strip hasn’t regularly whined about how “welfare moms” feed their children crappy food that makes them fat, thus they are lazy bad parents who are totally the only ones responsible for their current plight and “welfare reform”.

Overall, the comics are like a cranky grandpa wandering around town muttering under his breath about the evil liberals and looking for the smallest amount of material he can get away with for the day’s paycheck (seriously, one sentence, two panels, not even Garfield is that lazy).

Yeah. I kinda think of the people who work in the field as “workers”—“blue-collar,” if you will.

I’m on a tear—what if all the migrant farm workers said, “You know what? Fuck it. Let the fruits of your labor rot in the field if the fruits of my labor are such a fucking burden for you. If you can’t pay enough white people to pick the shit and pack it for you—-fuck you. Not my problem. I’ve had about enough of your dehumanizing shit. You pathetic asswipes.”

Teachers too. Walk. Two weeks. “You think we’re payed too much to spend more time with your kids than half of you do? Fuck you! You teach them how to read and write and do math, then; but here’s a big clue—teach them a modicum of social skills because it’s hard to teach a classroom full of children when three or four of them need to be peeled off the ceiling because they have been taught nothing about how to handle their emotions, and two or three of them are hungry most of the time and their clothes and shoes don’t fit properly, and two or three more suffer violence and continual uproar in their environment, and five of them are basket cases on Mondays because of the weekend they just spent with who knows what, and …Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you very much. You think I get payed too much? Hire a teenager to watch, manage, and educate your children because schoolteachers aren’t societies “wives” to anyone who wants to pop out one or more children for somebody else to straighten out.”

Teachers too. Walk. Two weeks. “You think we’re payed too much to spend more time with your kids than half of you do? Fuck you! You teach them how to read and write and do math, then; but here’s a big clue—teach them a modicum of social skills because it’s hard to teach a classroom full of children when three or four of them need to be peeled off the ceiling because they have been taught nothing about how to handle their emotions, and two or three of them are hungry most of the time and their clothes and shoes don’t fit properly, and two or three more suffer violence and continual uproar in their environment, and five of them are basket cases on Mondays because of the weekend they just spent with who knows what, and …Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you very much. You think I get payed too much? Hire a teenager to watch, manage, and educate your children because schoolteachers aren’t societies “wives” to anyone who wants to pop out one or more children for somebody else to straighten out.”

Preach it!

One positive that came out of the recent anti-union and especially anti-teacher crap the right has been spewing is that my left-leaning-but-normally-not-very-politically-aware-or-active wife decided to become more active in her teacher’s union and became the union rep for her school. I’m so proud!

Yep. Employee owned and open 24/7. Me and buggles luv grocery shopping in the wee hours. Grocery stores always make me feel secure—like our tribe is going to make it through the winter. I love buying bulk too and bringing a buttload of reusable bags to pack all the groceries in.

One positive that came out of the recent anti-union and especially anti-teacher crap the right has been spewing is that my left-leaning-but-normally-not-very-politically-aware-or-active wife decided to become more active in her teacher’s union and became the union rep for her school. I’m so proud!

I’m proud of her too. I get vicarious feelings of participation, so I pay extra SEIU fees to help with the lobbying efforts. Send the DAV money from time to time—they have a hell of a lobby and a lot of volunteers. And Doctors without Borders every month. I’m too far gone to participate but I cheer as loud as I can and thank the union members who call and volunteers who ask for more funds.

But this quiver-squirt is working diligently to blow the whistle on those union thugs. I read today that an eel swam into a man’s penis in a Japanese resort (or something like that). I want something like that to happen to this kid. And I want his insurance company to drop him right then and there—eels swimming into your dick isn’t in the contract, kid, you should of thought of that before you got in the water..

I want something like that to happen to this kid. And I want his insurance company to drop him right then and there—eels swimming into your dick isn’t in the contract, kid, you should of thought of that before you got in the water..

That, along with a bunch of those flies that lay their eggs under the skin.

Martius also speculated that the fish were attracted by the “odor” of urine.[7] Later experimental evidence showed this to be false, as the fish actually hunt by sight and have no attraction to urine at all.

I shoop at Winco for staples. Some of the produce isn’t bad but it’s definitely second tier stuff. I admit with some shame that I occasionally buy the whole beef tenderloin for $5.98 / pound or the whole rib eye for $4.98. It’s factory beef but at least it’s OR factory beef. And beer.

I shop at Winco exclusively, although I’m sure the low prices are a direct result of slave wage labor and I think that employee-owned shit is a scam if it’s anything like the employee-owned crap that got popular in the 90’s. Nobody got any money or any say in the direction of the company, just more of the same bullshit. So I shop there and feel bad about it.

I spent years in democratically operated student housing coops, and we did business with food buying clubs, and a consumer coop grocery store. Some people seemed to think it was “socialist borg hivemind collective stuff.”

How many Americans have ever lived in a democratic situation where they had to make the rules, enforce them, bend them, come up with new rules, adapt, and cooperate to keep the lights on and keep the household/job/club—working? Democracy isn’t easy, but it’s not that hard either. It requires taking responsibility and holding others responsible. Bullshit never did walk very far. Why is genuine Democratic organization seen as totalitarian and socialist-scary-monster? Because a democratically run organization wouldn’t vote for everyone in it to push the fruits of their labor to the top 1% so they can use it to fuck us up the ass without lubricant and have their minions lecture us about how “lazy” we are and what terrible choices we made; and wouldn’t it be easier if they didn’t have to lecture us anymore—we all just internalize, “Work harder. I’m not enough. I’m never enough. Must work harder.” as if the success of the top 1% has anything to do with working hard or satisfying anyone but themselves.

Eat the rich. If they think the pound sign is “radical” then they just need to keep pushing and keep telling us how ungrateful we are to them because we don’t thank them enough for taking far more of the fruits of our collective labor than these soft, pink motherfucking assholes give back.

“Eat the rich. If they think the pound sign is “radical” then they just need to keep pushing and keep telling us how ungrateful we are to them because we don’t thank them enough for taking far more of the fruits of our collective labor than these soft, pink motherfucking assholes give back.”

Interesting aftereffect of McCain’s “Last Man Standing” gambit in 2008 seems to be that all the hopeless cases look like they’re happy to keep right on rolling the dice – even long after their odds of winning have become microscopic. Are there still going to be more than six raging sociopaths to choose from after New Year’s?

“It’s ironic. Society has to adapt to our changing environment and these kids are doing the same thing,” Taylor said.

“Perhaps . . . because students don’t have as much money, it’s becoming more prevalent.”

First time I went to college there was a bar in the student union. Austin was a great place to be poor and drunk at the time. Second time I went to college, no alcohol was served on campus so the “kids” drove their cars places to get shit-faced.

Cheap alcohol conveniently located. Take a cab home or walk a few blocks with friends. No problem.

I really wish we were more like Europe with alcohol. Sure, alcoholism, binge drinking, staggering home plastered out of you wits can be degrading and dangerous, but all the more reason to learn to drink at home with people who can let you know when you’ve had enough and you have time to learn your limits.

Josiah Cantrall is an American political commentator, part-time hat rack and “colonist” who gained national recognition for his ability to blow himself while doing investigative “reporting” during the Wisconsin union protests in February 2011,

Oh. Good laugh. Very good laugh. Probably will wake myself up laughing tonight. Poor little fella. (hit him again)

Will NOT figure out how to wikiscrew so anyone want to quote from the genius himself —-his furries article where he humbly goes on and on about himself and how others he knows go on an on about him and how badly they want him in the White House so he might appoint one of them to be an Official Dog Poop Pooper- Scooper—that’s one of the President’s jobs, right? Hiring the grounds crew and janitors?

“All I know, Dude, is when you get to the White House I am going to be your pooper-scooper…just give me a large travel budget and good benefits and I’ll scoop up dog poop all day for ya. Or wait — maybe I’ll be your lawn-keeper. That probably pays more, huh?”

I really wish we were more like Europe with alcohol…with people who can let you know when you’ve had enough and you have time to learn your limits.

You wanna know the only time in my life that I’ve ever drunk myself sick? As an 18-year-old in Europe, many years ago. Made that mistake once and never made it again. My European buddies loved to drink and party, but there was something inherently more balanced about them than a comparable crowd in the States. They just could handle it better. They also never drove drunk, and tended not to have hookups that everyone regretted the next day.

You wanna know the only time in my life that I’ve ever drunk myself sick? As an 18-year-old in Europe, many years ago. Made that mistake once and never made it again. My European buddies loved to drink and party, but there was something inherently more balanced about them than a comparable crowd in the States. They just could handle it better. They also never drove drunk, and tended not to have hookups that everyone regretted the next day.

I was in a Europe appreciate facebook group soon after getting an account: the only quote that still sticks out in my head went “If you understand that alcohol than improve a party but that the party shouldn’t be about the alcohol…”

Re Mallard. I just figured Tinsley couldn’t remember the difference between Che Guevara and Ceasar Chavez, but sort of recalled one of them was all about hippies and vegetables. So he flipped a coin and got it wrong. What a fucking surprise.

Wouldn’t it just be worse to his self-worth to just have Wikipedia delete his entry as ‘not important enough’?

It was WP:PROD (proposed for deletion) two weeks after creation for lack of notability. Here’s teh reasoning:

Non-notable journalist. Appears to be notable for a single event.

Teh entry before all teh brilliant and extremely accurate updates was pretty much a bogus entry. Teh page was made by someone with almost no Wikipedia history, although it was a very old account. It was almost entirely primary source material – i.e. Josie’s own biographies at places he blogged and Josie’s own articles and columns. So basically, yeah – teh entry should be deleted. D00d is not notable in teh Wikipedia sense of teh word.

Geez, if this is teh criteria for WP:Notable nowadays, they should just change teh name to Facebook.

It actually isn’t. Once all the noise dies down – Josie or his masters will notice the Wiki page soon, and it’ll probably get reverted and locked due to vandalism (as Wikipedia defines it) – I’ll tag the article as not-notable. Does the kid have any published book material by a major imprint? Ever held office? Ever done anything aside from spewing derp on American Stinker?

Then he’s not notable. Internet-only citations carry very little weight without any major print or other media citations. So it’ll likely get deleted and locked out, until and unless someone can come up with Wikipedia-acceptable citations.

Anybody else know of any wingnut derpmasters with their own vanity Wikipedia pages? If their work (I use the term loosely) is only published on the Internet, it usually means WP admin will delete the page as non-notable – IF it’s brought to their attention.

Excellent. I was going to do it myself, but I figured requesting deletion on a new account isn’t looked kindly upon. I might chime in when it does go to AfD, but considering how egregiously bad that entry is in terms of ego-stroking ridiculousness i suspect it won’t be necessary.

Yup. Original author. As justification, she added that Josie had tea with Christopher Monckton and met a bunch of other wingnuts. Also he may have appeared at a Tea Party rally.

Bullshit. Where’s the reliable third-party reference?

Besides being not notable, there are also provisions in Wikipedia guidelines to discourage blatant self-promotion. Video interviews he conducts with YouTube as the only distro are like blog pages he writes. Anybody can do it. He needs bylines in major publications, a book deal, or a MSM gig to be notable.

Look, a wingnut like Erik Son-of-Erik is notable because he’s got those things that Wikipedia considers reliable third-party citations. This little guy is not, he’s just abusing Wikipedia for naked self-promotion.

04:35, 19 October 2011? SincerelyAmanda (talk | contribs)? (8,156 bytes) (Practiced some peer-review editing to get extra credit as a history student, perhaps. In otherwords, outsmarted some time-wasting media hijackers and cleaned up the mess they made.)

You see that Sadlynaughts you just got beaten in battle of wits by a history student practicing some peer-review editing. BURRRN!!!

Josiah Jedediah Ezekiel Cantrall is not representative of all homeschoolers.

Of course not, but he’s a typical fundamentalist right-wing loon. I would imagine that you meet the type all the time in the broader homeschooling community. The problem with the type is that they’ve basically nuked the word “homeschooler” from orbit, as well as the words “christian” and “family”.

Alasandra, I don’t think anyone is criticizing home-schooling per se. We are criticizing, as B^4 points out, the failure of this parent to instill even the slightest hint of the value of research, which speaks to an inability to think and connect those thoughts into a coherent and logical position on an issue.

Or, to simply admit you have no clue about it.

Cantrall critiques public education without having set foot in a classroom in anger. That’s as biased and wrong as people here making fun of home schooling as a practice.

All of which, of course, does raise a major criticism of home schooling in concept: the idea of feedback from someone more knowledgable in a subject that the student as well as the exposure to different points of view held by people willing to defend them.

For Joe Max and/or other Wikipedians who want to flag teh Cantrall page as AfD:

There are 18 references on teh Cantrall entry. One is the subject’s Facebook, one is his LinkedIn, three are bios from websites he blogs at and two are bios from teh Wisconsin/Washington County GOP. Five are labelled as YouTube links although one is actually hosted by Fox’s Red Eye. None of teh YouTube videos have moar than 5,000 views. One link is another self-published video interview at mefeedia and another interview video is a dead link to World News Network (proudly proclaiming over 50,000 new articles daily). One link is an announcement that Josie will be on Sippy Cup’s show. And one link is to one of teh subject’s own columns (also listed as one of his “publications” but link goes to a mirror site).

Teh two remaining links deal with how he “gained national recognition for his investigative reporting during the Wisconsin union protests in February 2011.” One of the two is at BigGovernment, which he lists as one of the places he writes for. At best, one out of eighteen references meets teh WP:BASIC tenet of being independent from teh subject.

Regarding that investigative reporting – Wikipedia is not a newspaper and Bio of Living Person based on a Single Event (WP:BLP1E) generally does not warrant a separate article (from teh Single Event). Further, teh notability of his actual reporting is questionable at best. While teh Wisconsin Teacher’s Union Strike was a notable event garnering substantive coverage in most major media outlets, asserted notability relates to only a single small aspect of teh strike – teh “fake” doctors’ notes. Additionally, Cantrall is not the only one to report on these notes on the day in question. Here is a link from Teh Atlantic featuring Cantrall’s video and three others as well. One of the other videos has nearly ten times the number of YouTube views as Cantrall’s. The “national recognition” being asserted is not demonstrated by teh references. A Google News search for “Josiah Cantrall” covering the time period in question turns up a single hit – a mention in the county daily newspaper (The Waukesha Freeman, with circulation numbers around 12K).

The subsection titled “Controversy” has problems with WP:NPOV. More than half of the section is a direct quote from the subject and he is relating an anecdote that is frankly, very difficult to believe. The anecdote is also related to his single event and presents Josiah as undertaking intrepid undercover reporting (which is also seen in teh tone of his video) and yet others who covered the same issue on the same day clearly show that the practice with the doctors’ notes was already widely known and not being concealed by the participants.

Finally, article was marked WP:PROD two weeks after original authorship. Original author removed tag and left no explanation in the talk page explaining why. Additionally, original author looks very much like a SPA.

Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! I’ll criticize that as a “per se”. It makes about as much as practicing home dentistry–even if you’re a dentist. Going to school is about far more than just imparting some facts to your children. As Actor pointed out, it is about being exposed to people and ideas that are outside the narrow bubble of your parents’ biases–which is exactly why so many narrow-minded, bigoted people choose to home-school. I want my children to grow and learn alongside Christians, atheists, Hispanics, blacks, blondes, tall people, handicapped, rich, poor, left-handed and overweight people. And those people deserve to have the experience of learning from my kids, too.

Check. Make that two references as being independent of subject. The announcement that he will be featured in a single segment of a single episode of S.E. Cupp’s show meets WP:BASIC criteria. Although it still doesn’t do much for WP:Notability.

You need to scatter half a dozen self-authored biographies of yourself at various locales first.

Note that teh Cantrall page hyperlinks “Moonie Times” when listing Cantrall’s “places he writes for.” BUT, he doesn’t actually write for Moonie Times – he writes for “Moonie Times Community” which appears to be their blogging platform.

Therefore you can probably claim affiliation with Google due to being a Contributor at a site hosted by Blogger. Despite posting less frequently than I do. Hint, hint.

Had to share this comment from Gawker, posted on the news that Tony Bologna of NYPD pepper spray fascism fame, would get the extra harsh punishment of having some vacation days docked. I’m sure the victims would agree that this is a satisfactory response to police brutality. Anyway, here is the hilarious comment:

After his chastisement, Officer Bologna was never the same. He later retired and moved to a farm upstate. His wife, Rose, would often find him standing in the fields late at night, pepper-spraying the animals in the face, hour after hour. The animals would howl and run and fall to the ground, but he’d get no enjoyment from it. Rose would go out to him and put her soft hand on his shoulder.

“Come to bed, Tony. Please…” she’d say.

But he wouldn’t even look her in the eye.

“It’s just not what it used to be, Rose,” he’d say. “It’s just not. And it never will be.”

Then Rose would guide him back to the house and up to their bedroom, where they would make sad, brief love before falling asleep. Tony didn’t dream much. All of his fantasies were long gone now, buried in the past, forever.

They said they would only take ten vacation days. But god damn them, they took so much more.

Okay … Tintin, HTML Mecken, or Brad need to take a swing at this new idiocy (via Wonkette, since I won’t give any teatardaloon site a single page view):

Resolved that: Our President, the Democrats-Socialists, most of the media, and most of those from Hollywood, have now encouraged and supported “Occupy” demonstrations in our streets, which are now being perpetrated across the globe, and which are being populated by various marxists, socialists and even communists, and are protesting against business, private property ownership and capitalism, something I thought I’d never see in my country, in my lifetime.

I, an American small business owner, part of the class that produces the vast majority of real, wealth producing jobs in this country, hereby resolve that I will not hire a single person until this war against business and my country is stopped.

I hereby declare that my job creation potential is now ceased.
“I’m on strike!”

Yes. Because nothing will ensure a business’ success than not having any workers and refusing money from customers who are willing to give it to you.

Dear fucking lord these people are weapons grade stupid.

And the mangoes in comments are quite tasty. So much so that I can’t tell if they’re legit, or dropped there by a Wonketteir.

A sample:

Large and mid-size business should stop hiring

Yes … because ssoooooo many are hiring right now.

Start firing dead weight like mexicans and lazy african americans

We’re not racists! YOU’RE THE REAL RACISTS!!!

Burn your socialist currency. $1, $5, $10 ,etc bills should be set ablaze like the night sky on 1776!!

Burn all of your money!! That’ll show ’em!

Business should stop providing services and goods to “liberal looking” people.

I guess serving your nation for slave wages and the chance to come home a little light in the limb category now makes one a marxisticsocialistliberal because you might one day use a VA hospital to get treatment for PTSD. Or something. Who the fuck knows anymore?

You are receiving some bad advice here. Cantrall’s real claim to fame is that he busted doctors giving fake sick passes in Madison earlier this year. So, what you really need to do is infiltrate some “Occupy” protest and bust someone who actually pays income taxes. I know, I know. What are the odds? But if Cantrall, who was home-schooled, can do it, I am sure you are capable.

Either that or prove that you were a good hall-monitor in fifth grade.

Resolved that: When I cook risotto everything is a handful of this or a couple shakes of that &c. so I never know exactly how much I will end up making, and just to be on the safe side, I always try to err on the side of moar risotto than is required for the meal, because let me tell you, risotto does surprisingly well in teh nuker for a reheated lunch.

So this week-end left me with a batch of leftover mushroom and onion risotto – mmm, mmm tasty. And it’s getting to be around that time of day when I need some food to help slow down teh absorbtion of all that office bourbon.

I, do, hereby, declare, (land’s sakes!), it’s now a time for some eatin’.
“I’m on lunch!”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but OWS is currently protesting a fragment of Plan A. The rest of it seems to involve keeping “certain people” from voting, marrying, starting up a viable business, running for office…

Also too, this going Galt thing depends upon the premise that the blessed Job-Creators are creating jobs now. Well, they ain’t. So, what are they gonna do? Create negative jobs? Srsly, could these people get any dumber, meaner and more cut-of-nose-to-spite-face-ier?

That rant is AWESOME. Unfortunately, if it had come from a real business owner, he would be out of business by now or soon will be. Which, hey–if some assfaced repig goes out of business because he wants to stick it to OBUMMER and won’t hire enough people to do the job, then I’m more that glad to see that business go down and the customers do business with someone who isn’t an habitual poop eater.

Also too, Tea Party d00d gots to lurn teh WHEREAS part. I mean he’s got teh general idea with teh various observations leading up to some sort of resolution. BUT teh resolution is teh part that gets resolved. It’s supposed to go:

And afore any of y’all go and point out that his version is actually moar accurate based on how Tea Party people ignore actual facts and reality and RESOLVE THAT; wev SOSHULASM is plighting their bairns and giving their lumbagos a mean case of gippe – consider yourself A-HEMed

You know what happens even if all of their fantasies come true? The country collapses, and some other country, whose upper class hasn’t completely lost it and isn’t willing to destroy the entire country in a fit of entitlement, takes over.

The list of countries that’ve crashed and burned because of the stupidity or entitlement of their upper classes is long and distinguished. Democracy was supposed to counteract that by making the upper classes a little more accountable to the will of the average voter, but apparently that’s not how things work, so… down the drain with us.

Josiah Jedediah Ezekiel Cantrall is not representative of all homeschoolers.

I homeschooled both my boys and I assure you they are both better researchers and writers then Mr. Cantrall.

I noted above that home schooling can have inherent advantages over public schooling (1 on 1 teacher student interactions, the ability to personally alter pace and lesson plan to tailor it to one student’s specific aptitude, the encouragement that comes from heavy teacher attention, and the ability to continue learning on a more natural schedule).

Basically, public schooling works best for large groups, but home schooling with an intelligent and motivated parent, can provide benefits public schooling can’t because it needs to address the needs of the many. Not to mention that public schools tend to be over-crowded on class size which reduces benefits that come from more 1:1 interactions.

Where the problems come in is in the fact that the teacher is only as good as the parent. If you have a motivated parent with a strong interest in reality (and the time to spend basically having an unpaid full-time job) then the results can be good outside the obvious problems with socialization and time spent acclimating outside the home environment.

With the hordes of “I want to brainwash my child for Jesus” types, though, it actually makes them less informed than if they just let their TVs raise them. They end up lacking both social awareness and even a cursory understanding of reality.

Also too, this going Galt thing depends upon the premise that the blessed Job-Creators are creating jobs now.

I know. It’s always been an empty threat, seeing as how a) they aren’t nearly as important as they think they are and b) they tend to be instantly replaceable and would be if they left with nary a thought back.

But they make it anyways because it makes them feel important and helps fuel the self-delusions that the country couldn’t do without their important contributions.

Of course, it is even more apparent bullshit now, because the job they claim they are doing is creating jobs in the middle of a second great depression so strong that not even the media blatantly ignoring it is distracting people from the fact it is happening.

Anyone with even the remotest connection to the real world knows there ain’t no jobs out there and so having someone go, “grr, lavish me in praise or I won’t hire” just sounds like someone nominating themselves to be the scapegoat we take our frustrations with the economy out on.

Oh, you want to pretend that you are in charge of all this? Okay, let me get my baseball bat and we can “discuss” your important role in why I have had 0 income for nearly 18 months.

I know. It’s always been an empty threat, seeing as how a) they aren’t nearly as important as they think they are and b) they tend to be instantly replaceable and would be if they left with nary a thought back.

I’ve always believed that anyone who threatens to Go Galt ought to be given a ticket on the B-Ark, gratis.

I mean, really. Babe Ruth was the most talented ball player in baseball history, yet the Yankees have managed to win twenty more championships without him.

The first important step for refinancing a car Bad Credit
Loans Personal is a Bad Credit Loans Personal Shark?
Just correcting any mistakes that may be reported to the credit bureaus.

There are three key factors to keep in mind that a contract could be used in their advertisements.
So how do you know when it happens. If the numbers don’t make sense to you? Call me skeptical, but I do sympathise with their situation to some extent.